


Dawn

by KrC



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It, Gen, I did not like what they did with Thor, Post-Endgame, Spoilers, Thor (Marvel) Needs a Hug, so i wrote a thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-01-31 16:02:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18594667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrC/pseuds/KrC
Summary: The battle with Thanos was over, it was time for their king to come back to them.





	1. Chapter 1

Valkyrie found him standing at the edge of the cliff, watching the horizon. It wasn’t the first time she had found him here, and she wondered if it was a way for him to connect with his father. As though standing at the place where he died would bring forth some of Odin’s wisdom. She almost snorted at the thought, it was Odin’s ‘wisdom’ that lead them to New Asgard in the first place.

She stood beside him, unsure of where to start. It was bittersweet for them, knowing that they had saved half the universe but not those that they had lost. And she knew it was harder for Thor, that he had been blaming and hating himself for not being able to save their people, his breakdown was proof enough of that. Still, she took a breath and prayed to any god that could hear her that Thanos’ defeat had started Thor on the path to healing.

“Can we expect you back now?” He turned to her, a bitter smile on his face.

“Do you really think they would want a king like me?” Valkyrie shook her head.

“Do you really think they’ve forgotten what you’ve done for them? You’re the reason that any of them survived, that I came home. You’re the only King that Asgard wants Thor.” He turned away from her, trying to avoid hearing about what lead them all here, again, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him back. As painful as it was, he needed to hear this. “None of us resent you for the last few years, your Majesty, least of all me.” 

“How did you do it, Valkyrie?” She frowned, not understanding what he meant. “How did you find your way again?”

Her face softened and she grasped his shoulder as a comfort and a source of strength.

“You, your Majesty. You showed me that I still have something to fight for.” 

He smiled at her as his eyes filled with tears before turning to look over the small village that was their new home.

“Perhaps, Valkyrie, this time you would be willing to return the favour.” She grinned at him.

“It would be my honour your Majesty. We’ll start training at dawn.” Her grin only widened at his indignant squawk.

“Dawn?! Shouldn’t we ease back into things?” 

“Why your Majesty, I thought you had always wanted to be a Valkyrie?”

For the first time in a long time, Thor truly laughed.


	2. Renewal

Thor hit the ground with force, skidding back a few metres and creating another small ditch in the soft ground.

“Again.”

Valkyrie, or Brunnhilde as she had started insisting he call her, was a hard taskmaster. Most days she was dragging him, literally, up to the cliffs above the village as soon as the sun’s first days hit the horizon to drill him in combat for hours on end. The past week had been an endless drizzle of rain, leaving the grass wet and the dirt soft enough that Thor kept struggling to keep his footing under her endless onslaught.

It has been two months since he asked for her help on these very cliffs and while his progress was slow and occasionally stilted, today was one of those days where he could feel how far he had come. He awoke with little complaint, had only had two beers so far, and for the first time in five years he started to feel like the warrior he used to be. Even with dual swords he knew he could not defeat her, knew that he probably would never beat her without his godly powers. He had never seen a warrior as skilled and as powerful as her (and he wondered, not for the first time, why his father did not save the Valkyries).

On the bad days, and there were still many of those, she still dragged him to the cliffs but instead of swords she brought beer and whatever was left over from dinner the night before. On these days they sat on the very edge of the cliff and watched the sunrise, silent in their shared sense of loss. Brunnhilde was a hard taskmaster, but she wasn’t cruel and she knew intimately the pit of self-loathing and pain that Thor had to climb out of. Sometimes, they would share stories of times long gone, of adventures and victories and obstacles overcome. Bruunhilde would not talk of the royal family and Thor would not mention anything from his first coronation onwards but it was a way they found solace in each other, kindred spirits connecting in shared trauma.

Now, lying on the ground covered in dirt and his hair a tangled mess, Thor grinned.

“I’m just getting started!”

* * *

 

WHACK!

_You should’ve aimed for the head._

WHACK!

_Thanos’ head flying from his body, an action done too late to be of any use._

WHACK!

_Loki’s lifeless body falling to the ground._

WHACK!

_Losing the chance to use the Stones, to bring back his people._

WHACK!

_His reflection in the mirror, how he had become a disgraced and worthless king._

WHACK!

_Heimdell sacrificing his life to send Bruce to earth._

WHACK!

_Odin dying and leaving them unprepared for the threat that was Hela._

WHACK!

_The realisation that his planet would have to die to save his people, being the only one to carry the burden of making that decision._

WHACK!

With the final blow, the tree groaned and then fell with a mighty crash. Thor gasped for air, more from his emotions than the physical exertion, as he dropped his axe to the ground. Wiping the sweat from his face he couldn’t help but smile at what he had accomplished so far, at the rate he was going New Asgard would have enough wood for the framework of the new mead hall by the end of the day.

“Excellent work Thor!” Korg cheered from where he and Miek were preparing the trees he had already cut down to be taken back to New Asgard. “That website Miek found was right in suggesting this as a way for you to release your pent-up aggression and to feel productive. Logging is much better than my idea of using lightning strikes to fish. Or yell at teenagers, now that I think about it.”

Thor winced at the reminder of his past behaviour, Korg had been a good friend to him the past few years but his bluntness was not always a good thing.

“Yes, thank you Miek, this has been very helpful.” While Thor could not say that his troubles were gone, he did feel lighter, like a band around his chest had loosened and he could finally breath again. Thor hoped that the feeling would last. “Although, Korg, the lightning idea _does_ sound fun.”

Korg’s eyes lit up as he grinned.

“Really?! Because I was thinking that we could…”

As Korg continued on with his ideas, each more ridiculous than the last, Thor felt that band loosen a bit further.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, these ideas haven't left me alone since I posted the first chapter. This was meant to be a oneshot and now I have at least one more chapter I want to write, funny how that happens lol.

**Author's Note:**

> So while there were so so so many things about Endgame that I loved and really enjoyed, the way that they ended Thor's arc was not one of them. So I decided to fix it.


End file.
